Notes

1. Hair of the Bud
2. Thirteen (7" ver)
3. Radio spot w/Neil
4. So Kind #3
5. Seven #7 (demo ver)
6. Lost in a Dream #12
7. Chasing the Wind #9 (cass ver)
8. Horizon (Zak ver)
9. Mountain Special (Zak ver)
10. Not My Chore (Zak ver)
11. Thirty-One (Zak ver)
12. Birds and Birds and Bees (rehearsal)
13. Bumpiss (rehearsal)
14. The River (rehearsal)

Tracks 1, 2, & 3 Recorded July 13, 1991 at: NEW WORLD STUDIOS by Eric Broyhill
Tracks 4, 5, & 6 Recorded sometime in 1989 at: Matt Erick's Studio 18th and D by Matt Erick
Track 7 Recorded in September 1990 at: NEW WORLD STUDIOS by Eric Broyhill
Tracks 8, 9, 10, & 11 Recorded in 1996 at: Coast Recordings by Zak Allentuck
Tracks 12, 13, & 14 Recorded in 1996 at: The Rhythm Kitchen

Kai Kln is:

Scott Anderson: Bass
Sherman Loper: Guitar
Gene Smith: Guitar, Vocals, Flute
Neil Franklin: Drums
On track 11, "Thirty-One", Sax by Jason Boggs, trumpet by Todd Kelly.

"Hair of the Bud" was not included on the 1995 "Rythym of Stranger" CD release, so here it is! Financed by a guy named Pete who sort of disappeared after the album was released. The album was meant to promote hemp education. The spoken word section in the middle of the song was written and performed by Pete. The rewrite of Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" was done by Gene Smith with the arrangement and production of Kai Kln. This song was the only thing that Kai Kln did that showed up on "The Charts", appearing on a few collage radio station's charts and got our name on High Times' "Pot 100" a couple of months.

"Thirteen" was included on the 1995 "Rythym of Stranger" CD release but was missing that cool sounding fade in that Eric did so I had to include the song. This song remained a regular part of our live show with the occasional extension of the Bass solo (Scott was the best!).

Track 3 is a radio spot that Neil did for a local radio station.

Kai Kln's demo was recorded and then dubbed onto a cassette tape. We were too cheap to buy the reels from the studio and so they are now lost. The "master" cassette was used to dub off cassettes at home and was eventually thrown into a box and forgotten. It was in pretty bad shape when I transferred it, I used Sound Forge to do some noise reduction and EQ work. If there's a better sounding second gen tape out there send it my way!

"So Kind" is the third song we wrote together as a band and with the addition of Gene's lyrics it became a favorite at parties and our early gigs. When the band's set list expanded, this song was fazed out do to the fact we played it at every event for the first couple years of our existence.

"Seven" was an instant classic with a jam that could be extended and changed for any gig we played. It was re-recorded for "Rythym of Strange" but this version features Neil playing a water pipe (you have to listen carefully to hear it because of the poor condition of the source).

"Lost in a Dream" failed to make it onto "Rythym of Strange" but was a regular song in our set lists (known as #12). This third and final song on the demo is the only studio version of this song recorded during our career.

"Chasing the Wind" from "Rythym of Strange" is included here because I heard that the Master reel broke in the middle of this song when it was being transferred to digital for the "Rythym of Stranger" CD. The song was saved on the CD with some cutting and pasting done on the computer but it cost the song a lyric. This original version is what you would have heard live lyrically.

The next four songs on this compilation are from a cassette recorded at the "The Matter of Things" sessions after we mixed the songs with Zak Allentuck. It was decided by Rude Boys Records to have Brian Wheat re-mix some of the songs on the album that had radio air play potential. I know this is low-fi but here's the original mixes as done by Zak Allentuck and Kai Kln.

"Horizon" - This version has an extended intro by Sherman and was meant to be the leading track on the album.

"Mountain Special" is basically the same, you can hear minor production differences. It was going to be the second song on the album.

"Not My Chore" is the full length version, the version on "The Matter of Things" had the beginning shortened. No other obvious changes.

"Thirty-One" was drastically changed when mixed and produced for "The Matter of Things". The version here is how we did it live and has all the horns that Gene conducted uncut. The changes were made to make the song more dynamic and possibly radio friendly.

The last three songs come from a cassette dubbed from an eight track session we did at a home studio prior to going into Coast Recordings for "The Matter of Things" sessions. We quickly mic'd everything up and ran through all the songs we planned to record for the album. Most of the songs on the tape were uninspired renditions of songs or had performance issues (we did everything quickly in one take) but here are three that didn't make the album. There's probably better live versions out there, but for the fans here it goes...

"Birds and Birds and Bees" is a great instrumental penned by Scott that didn't make the album. As you can hear from this recording, we were still working on the performance of the song. We tried to get it on the album and even had a good mix of it but finally we dropped it because of time restraints; the mix still needed work and we ran out of time.

"Bumpiss" also is an instrumental by Scott. This song also had performance issues and in the studio it never made it past the basic tracks.

"The River", I believe, was forgotten once we got into the studio - I never remember recording the basic tracks for it. It's basically a Gene song that Kai Kln did regularly, this is a typical version of the song. You can't hear Sherman's guitar very well but basically all Sherman did was embellishments behind the singing and rhythm behind Gene's lead. I was pleased to hear this on the tape and had to share it with everyone, Gene's vocals really make the song shine and it's a good way to end this project off.

And that raps it up, I hope this album is not the first time you heard Kai Kln because there's some old crap and poor sounding stuff here. If you're a fan, thanks for helping make the memories I went through while putting this together, those were good days! Be sure to read the pro hemp literature on the "Hair of the Bud" cover, this project could still raise some awareness after all these years.

(To contact the band, email kai_kln@yahoo.com or write to Sherman Loper PO BOX 60131 Sacramento, CA 95860 USA)

Hair of the Bud (1991) / Insert This Way Records / Additional material Kai Kln Archives (2005) - Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Kai Kln: http://www.geocities.com/kai_kln